<zipfileset> vs. <fileset> in ant

Question

The ant build tool provides two different tasks <fileset/> and <zipfileset/>. According to the documentation <zipfileset/> allows us to extract files from a .zip file if we use src attribute.

My question is if we are using dir attribute to select files then what is the difference between the two, <zipfileset/> and <fileset/>.

e.g.

                <zipfileset dir="conf/Gateway>
                <include name="jndi.properties" />
                </zipfileset>

                                 and

                <fileset dir="conf/Gateway>
                <include name="jndi.properties" />
                </fileset>

Answer 1

One useful difference between the two tasks if you're building an archive (a ZIP or WAR or JAR for example) is that a zipfileset has a prefix attribute you can use to relocate the given files at a different folder in the archive. For example, if the following is included in a bigger set of fileset and zipfileset elements:

<zipfileset dir="conf/Gateway" prefix="properties">
    <include name="jndi.properties" />
</zipfileset>

then the file conf/Gateway/jndi.properties will actually be included in the output as conf/Gateway/properties/jndi.properties. You can achieve the same end in other ways, but this is occasionally useful.

Otherwise, just use the task that seems most appropriate for the task at hand.